17 January 2005
Week Twenty Seven
Apologies once again for a slight delay. Yesterday, being Sunday, was my first day off for 6 days, so I did the only honourable thing and got drunk. This hindered my blog update somewhat.
Well, this will be a much more positive update as I have had a very pleasant week all round. I had Attendance One of my CTC which is the training that we do throughout our probation. I was down at Sunbury and despite the fact that it took me two and a half hours to get there each morning, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
The main topics of the week were all around a crime that had occurred at the training college, well, The High Street, Brixley actually and what we had to do, was solve the crime! Eddie, our instructor for the week was flipping between being our instructor and being Jo Chi, who we believed had committed this crime.
The instructor was absolutely brilliant and I really liked his style of teaching. Although he is now a civilian trainer and formally retired from the police, he used to be an Inspector for about ten years but I loved the fact that he didn’t look down on us at all and was very much on our level and didn’t want any of this calling him Sir, or Staff or anything, just Eddie. The class too was great and a lot of old faces from Hendon were back and we just had such a giggle all week and most importantly, I actually feel like I got a lot from the week, particularly around the Interviewing Suspects area. I was slightly uncomfortable with interviews before this week’s training as I kind of had the feeling that I couldn’t really say much other than getting their account, I certainly didn’t think I could give my opinion but it turns out that you can, if nothing adds up at all and I guess, thinking back to training at Hendon and White Note land, it does actually say that but seeing it done and doing it for myself to see how to challenge well was incredibly useful to me.
Of course, the week culminated in the usual KEE style exam, which we have to pass and being the sad muppet that I am, I always look forward to exams. I like that nervous feeling before taking the exam and before getting results and the slightly panicky feeling about whether you have done enough. I got 93% which I was reasonably satisfied with.
On Saturday, I was back to work for a late shift and I was really hoping to get some good experience in as I am so worried about how little time I have out on the streets under supervision before we join team. Sadly, not an awful lot happened. Strangely, in our borough, Saturday night is reasonably quiet, Friday night is always far busier. We did, however, have a couple of good vehicle stops. One, where we had only stopped the vehicle to give them a warning about having their fog lights on but it turned out after all the checks that we do routinely when we stop someone that it wasn’t his car, it was his friend’s and he only had a provisional licence and was driving unsupervised without L plates. I hadn’t done a process book yet so that was a good experience.
I was desperate to get a Stop and Search in as well as I almost feel like it is becoming an issue now but there just wasn’t anything about at all and there is now way I am carrying one out if I don’t feel that I have grounds to just for the sake of figures or ticking boxes as I don’t feel that that is doing the job at all well but that was my last night shift so I fear I may actually finish this ten week Street Duties course without getting in a Stop and Search. I am not worried about the procedure as I have searched loads of prisoners, it’s just more gaining the experience at explaining it well so it doesn’t leave the searchee feeling completely invaded.
I had found out during the week that we were definitely all joining response teams rather than Sector or any other type of attachment which was great news and on Saturday we finally got to find out which teams and stations we were joining. I had wanted to stay at Tooting really, probably a lot due to the familiarity of knowing the station and roads around it fairly well (in relative terms anyway) so I was pleased to find out I would be staying at Tooting. I would say that Lavender Hill is probably the best ground of the three in terms of variation of incidents and that, sadly, Tooting is rife with domestic incidents and incidents involving mental health issues but I was actually thinking that in some ways, that will be very good for me in terms of becoming better at this job as I figure if you can get to the point where you deal with these two types of incidents well, you can probably deal with anything, so it will be good for me seeing as this is one of the few things that still terrifies me.
I don’t know anyone at all already on the team I am going to, and strangely, no one I have asked seems to know anyone from that team either but the good thing is that my colleague Rich from Hendon is also joining the same team and station with me and I am really pleased about this as he is a wicked bloke, very good at the job and we have worked together loads already and I think work together very well. Apart from the fact that he is far too competent to give me the opportunity of joining with someone pants so that I look good, I am really chuffed!
It was strange though as after we all found out what team we were going on, a few of us actually felt really sad. It’s hard to describe to anyone who hasn’t done the same but the 6 of us that are together on this course have been through so much together from being in the same class, room etc. through the 18 week training course at Hendon and now through Street Duties and for the first time since starting this job, we are all going to be split up and it’s very sad. It isn’t like other jobs as well where you can all meet up in the evening or weekend as the different shift patterns just won’t allow for that and we realised that we would never again all be able to go out and get p*ssed together. Obviously I will meet new people in the team I am going to and I am sure we will become very close but it is sad none the less and I will miss them heaps.
Anyway, as I say, I join team in two weeks now and I don’t feel ready at all. I feel like I have forgotten everything, particularly the things I haven’t gained a lot of experience of yet like RTA’s (Road Traffic Accidents) and Drink Drive and well, pretty much any type of civil dispute so I just hope my new team aren’t expecting too much from me!
Next week, I have a Bailed To Return to deal with and then a couple of attachments, one to the CSU (Community Safety Unit), who primarily deal with things like following up domestic incidents etc. and one as Gaoler again at Battersea. I do adore going to Battersea and seeing the lovely Custody Sergeants there so I am actually really looking forward to that and then it is the weekend again, hoorah!
Right, back to the Coronation Street Omnibus, how sweet life is, catch you all soon.
x x x
